Jan 1, 2021, 8:29 am
Last edit by: corporate-wage-slave
01 - If your flight is cancelled by BA:
Commercial booking: Your options are: cash refund OR Future Travel Voucher (FTV) OR rebooking OR Avios credit
Redemption booking: Your options are: full refund of cash and Avios OR FTV OR rebooking.
BA Holidays booking: You should be given a refund pro-actively.
If your flight is cancelled by BA - any flight in the PNR - you can get a full refund so long as you booked directly with BA. You can only get a refund by telephoning BA. Refunds are taking between a few hours to a few weeks to be repaid, depending on the sort of booking made. If you don't wish to travel you can opt for an FTV or eVoucher valid for travel until 30 April 2023 (now extended from April 2022 including existing FTVs), though flights more than 355 days away are not currently bookable - flights are enabled at 355 days before departure. Vouchers such as 2-4-1 are also thereby extended. You can do this even if the flight is operating. The best advice we can give is to delay opting for an eVoucher options until the last moment, since if BA cancel your flight you have more options. BA have also adjusted the Standard Customer Guidelines so that if BA cancel the flight you can be rebooked to anytime in 12 months after you originally bought the ticket, so long as there is space in the cabin - there is no need to have a fare bucket available or Avios availability. If you choose the Avios credit you will get between 108 to 126 Avios per GBP of your fare. If you us,ed an FTV to pay for this now cancelled service then you can have a refund back to the FTV's original booking.
Online forms: manual process which may take many weeks
link to webform to claim a refund (UK) or link to webform to claim a refund (US)
Paid Seating Refund:
link to webform to claim a refund (UK)
02 - If your flight is not cancelled but you no longer wish to travel
Commercial booking: If you are eligible for Buy with Confidence, you can have an FTV valid until 31 August 2022 (this has been extended several times). Rebooking may lead to a fare recalculation but no change fee. Travel must be fully completed by this date.
Redemption booking: Your can do the normal Avios refund, with the redeposit fee capped at GBP 35 per person. Alternatively for the same fee you can rebook to new dates subject to availability. Alternatively you can have an FTV.
BA Holidays booking: You may be get a refund proactively, otherwise you are looking at an FTV for at least the flight component of your trip, maybe for all components.
If all of the flights in your booking are still scheduled and you don't wish to travel then you best wait until a few days before departure in case there is a cancellation. As you can see above, a cancellation gives you better options. You are in scope with Buy with Confidence if you are flying between now and completing travel before 30 April 2022, also if you bought your ticket after 3 March and due to complete all flights before September 2021. The BA web page on this is: https://ba.com/confidence
Bookings made using Lloyds Upgrade Voucher
You should expect to receive:
A full refund of Avios and money paid plus a new voucher issued, which has validity for 6 months (from the date of issue, i.e. when you request the 'refund')
Lloyds Upgrade Voucher Notes
03 - How to find out the status of your voucher and the amount it contains
Use the Qantas website and look back to your original PNR. Step by step guide by corporate-wage-slave
04 - Future Travel Vouchers versus eVouchers
FTVs cannot be used online (and are not really vouchers), whereas eVouchers, issued for simple bookings, can be used online.
BA are now issuing eVouchers directly in simple cases, and also proactively replacing existing FTVs with new eVouchers. These are usable online. Complex cases still get FTVs, which require a phone call to book. In both cases, you need to apply online through the Cancellation Options in MMB, and both will generate an email typically within a few minutes. This is how to tell the difference
1) eVouchers will get an email entitled "Your British Airways eVoucher"
This will then have a line like this and the online ability is mentioned in the email text:
Your eVoucher details
125-1234567890 / GBP48.87 / WAGE-SLAVE /
2) FTVs will get an email entitled "Your British Airways Future Travel Voucher"
The relevant line then shows:
Voucher code(s)
125-1234567890
It doesn't take much, by FT standards, to turn a booking too complicated for the automated eVoucher. POUGs, flight changes, TCP, seat payment, pay payment with Avios, UuA. 48 and 72 hour Hold bookings all stop it. But if you made a simple single or return booking, point to point, on BA.com and didn't change it, then you should get an eVoucher.
If you obtain an FTV, deploy it on a new booking which BA then cancels, then you can get a refund of the cash from the first booking that led to the FTV. Or an Avios refund without redeposit fees if it was a redemption.
Commercial booking: Your options are: cash refund OR Future Travel Voucher (FTV) OR rebooking OR Avios credit
Redemption booking: Your options are: full refund of cash and Avios OR FTV OR rebooking.
BA Holidays booking: You should be given a refund pro-actively.
If your flight is cancelled by BA - any flight in the PNR - you can get a full refund so long as you booked directly with BA. You can only get a refund by telephoning BA. Refunds are taking between a few hours to a few weeks to be repaid, depending on the sort of booking made. If you don't wish to travel you can opt for an FTV or eVoucher valid for travel until 30 April 2023 (now extended from April 2022 including existing FTVs), though flights more than 355 days away are not currently bookable - flights are enabled at 355 days before departure. Vouchers such as 2-4-1 are also thereby extended. You can do this even if the flight is operating. The best advice we can give is to delay opting for an eVoucher options until the last moment, since if BA cancel your flight you have more options. BA have also adjusted the Standard Customer Guidelines so that if BA cancel the flight you can be rebooked to anytime in 12 months after you originally bought the ticket, so long as there is space in the cabin - there is no need to have a fare bucket available or Avios availability. If you choose the Avios credit you will get between 108 to 126 Avios per GBP of your fare. If you us,ed an FTV to pay for this now cancelled service then you can have a refund back to the FTV's original booking.
Online forms: manual process which may take many weeks
link to webform to claim a refund (UK) or link to webform to claim a refund (US)
Paid Seating Refund:
link to webform to claim a refund (UK)
02 - If your flight is not cancelled but you no longer wish to travel
Commercial booking: If you are eligible for Buy with Confidence, you can have an FTV valid until 31 August 2022 (this has been extended several times). Rebooking may lead to a fare recalculation but no change fee. Travel must be fully completed by this date.
Redemption booking: Your can do the normal Avios refund, with the redeposit fee capped at GBP 35 per person. Alternatively for the same fee you can rebook to new dates subject to availability. Alternatively you can have an FTV.
BA Holidays booking: You may be get a refund proactively, otherwise you are looking at an FTV for at least the flight component of your trip, maybe for all components.
If all of the flights in your booking are still scheduled and you don't wish to travel then you best wait until a few days before departure in case there is a cancellation. As you can see above, a cancellation gives you better options. You are in scope with Buy with Confidence if you are flying between now and completing travel before 30 April 2022, also if you bought your ticket after 3 March and due to complete all flights before September 2021. The BA web page on this is: https://ba.com/confidence
Bookings made using Lloyds Upgrade Voucher
You should expect to receive:
A full refund of Avios and money paid plus a new voucher issued, which has validity for 6 months (from the date of issue, i.e. when you request the 'refund')
Lloyds Upgrade Voucher Notes
- Flights can be used within 12 months, so it will be good for travel up until the end 6 months plus 12 months if you book just before the new expiry
- It's been advised to take the voucher instead of rebooking as it gives me more flexibility.
- The original expiry date of the voucher was irrelevant because the booking was cancelled.
- You must book within 6 months of the voucher being issued and the ticket has 12 months validity so you can change flights after, provided the new flights are within the 12 month window.
- You won't receive any email, only the refund and the miles.
03 - How to find out the status of your voucher and the amount it contains
Use the Qantas website and look back to your original PNR. Step by step guide by corporate-wage-slave
04 - Future Travel Vouchers versus eVouchers
FTVs cannot be used online (and are not really vouchers), whereas eVouchers, issued for simple bookings, can be used online.
BA are now issuing eVouchers directly in simple cases, and also proactively replacing existing FTVs with new eVouchers. These are usable online. Complex cases still get FTVs, which require a phone call to book. In both cases, you need to apply online through the Cancellation Options in MMB, and both will generate an email typically within a few minutes. This is how to tell the difference
1) eVouchers will get an email entitled "Your British Airways eVoucher"
This will then have a line like this and the online ability is mentioned in the email text:
Your eVoucher details
125-1234567890 / GBP48.87 / WAGE-SLAVE /
2) FTVs will get an email entitled "Your British Airways Future Travel Voucher"
The relevant line then shows:
Voucher code(s)
125-1234567890
It doesn't take much, by FT standards, to turn a booking too complicated for the automated eVoucher. POUGs, flight changes, TCP, seat payment, pay payment with Avios, UuA. 48 and 72 hour Hold bookings all stop it. But if you made a simple single or return booking, point to point, on BA.com and didn't change it, then you should get an eVoucher.
If you obtain an FTV, deploy it on a new booking which BA then cancels, then you can get a refund of the cash from the first booking that led to the FTV. Or an Avios refund without redeposit fees if it was a redemption.
BA Covid-19 Flight cancellations, rebooking, and refunds | Help and advice thread
Jan 15, 2021, 9:38 am
#286
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,684
Am I missing something on the "maybe" booking? I'm thinking, rather optimistically, of rebooking BGI sometime in late April, and it looks like the current sale goes for another couple of weeks. Between refunds for cancellations, and FTVs for anything else, why shouldn't I chuck BA a few hundred quid that I don't really need at the moment for a holiday that will "maybe" happen?
Jan 15, 2021, 9:42 am
#287
Join Date: Sep 2020
Posts: 30
We have Heathrow to Gran Canaria flights booked for March. We are looking to push the flights back till later in the year but although there are flights operating later in the year it won’t offer us the option to change them online. Would this be to do with the fact that the flights later in the year are showing as operating from Gatwick instead? Would we be able to do this change by calling the Gold line? Many thanks for any advice
Jan 15, 2021, 9:53 am
#288
Join Date: Jan 2005
Programs: Aegean Airlines Silver, British Airways Gold, Virgin Atlantic Silver
Posts: 1,740
I'm now sitting on 3 cancelled bookings:
Anyone have any information as to whether the rebooking window to June for these BA sale bookings may be extended?
- Feb 21 to Male - booked in the cheap Business Class sale - which means I can only book to end June 21 at the latest
- Mar 21 to KL - booked in the 50% off Avios sale with 2-4-1 voucher - this route is now cancelled. Should I be able to move this to a SIN booking?
- Apr 21 BKK - booked in the 50% off Avios sale with a 2-4-1 voucher - still deciding what to do here
Anyone have any information as to whether the rebooking window to June for these BA sale bookings may be extended?
Jan 15, 2021, 9:55 am
#289
Join Date: Aug 2018
Posts: 19
Tier points when Avios ticket rebooked using commercial availability?
This is a bit cheeky, but an Avios redemption in First was cancelled this morning. Called YouFirst (good tip for anyone in F to call them as I got straight through), and the chap on the phone said he rebooked us on a commercial ticket for replacement flights, as there was no Avios availability for the dates we wanted. As BA cancelled my flight I had that luxury.
The 'Manage my booking' landing page says we'll earn 0 tier points but the outbound and return flights are in booking classes 'F' and 'A' (which I think are the classes if you'd used cash in First, no?). Plus I've learnt not to trust the generic info you get on the 'manage my booking' landing pages (eg, it's still listing previous flights in my booking that were cancelled).
I morally shouldn't get the tier points but I've read some people suggesting it's possible in this scenario, and even one way would be enough for silver.
Anyone know?
The 'Manage my booking' landing page says we'll earn 0 tier points but the outbound and return flights are in booking classes 'F' and 'A' (which I think are the classes if you'd used cash in First, no?). Plus I've learnt not to trust the generic info you get on the 'manage my booking' landing pages (eg, it's still listing previous flights in my booking that were cancelled).
I morally shouldn't get the tier points but I've read some people suggesting it's possible in this scenario, and even one way would be enough for silver.
Anyone know?
Last edited by goonerflyer; Jan 15, 2021 at 10:13 am
Jan 15, 2021, 10:04 am
#290
Join Date: Nov 2020
Location: London
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 86
You can move it by one year from the date of you initially booked the ticket (not one year from first date of travel). If the first flight on your booking is cancelled you can just leave it in limbo, provided it is not a BAH booking or on a non BA carrier. You can then rebook to any time within that year. If your first sector operates but other sectors are cancelled then you need to call up to prevent being a no-show, but you can still ask them to remove that first booking, so your flight is in limbo or has some random date in it to hold the data in the system. Good luck with the nuptials, hopefully it will sort itself out.
Jan 15, 2021, 2:48 pm
#291
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,684
Thanks very much, it was booked just as a simple BA Reward 241 return in mid December for end of April so if it is cancelled we have a bit of time to play around with, though we just want it done now, and will move it to May, then June, then July etc. if we have to! Does the "limbo" period ever expire?
Jan 15, 2021, 2:51 pm
#292
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,684
You should assume you won't get the credit. BA's computers are what they are. Hopefully you won't be credited since that will save you a phone call to have the TPs removed from your account.
Jan 15, 2021, 2:55 pm
#293
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,684
We have Heathrow to Gran Canaria flights booked for March. We are looking to push the flights back till later in the year but although there are flights operating later in the year it won’t offer us the option to change them online. Would this be to do with the fact that the flights later in the year are showing as operating from Gatwick instead? Would we be able to do this change by calling the Gold line? Many thanks for any advice
Jan 15, 2021, 4:49 pm
#294
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: UK
Programs: BA Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 799
What is BA’s classification for a cancellation?
Hi
I have a flight that has been moved 9.5 hours earlier to the original time. Same flight number. As it is, we can’t make it to that time since the original flight was in the evening and now it is in the morning. Is this classified as a cancellation?
I remember reading somewhere that more than 2 (or is it 4) hour change constitutes a cancellation?
Is this correct?
If it is a cancellation, I get my refund for free without paying the Ł35 pp penalty for the redemption booking.
I have a flight that has been moved 9.5 hours earlier to the original time. Same flight number. As it is, we can’t make it to that time since the original flight was in the evening and now it is in the morning. Is this classified as a cancellation?
I remember reading somewhere that more than 2 (or is it 4) hour change constitutes a cancellation?
Is this correct?
If it is a cancellation, I get my refund for free without paying the Ł35 pp penalty for the redemption booking.
Jan 15, 2021, 4:54 pm
#295
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Juneau, Alaska.
Programs: AS 75K;BA Silver;AA G;HH Dia;HY Glob
Posts: 15,790
Hi
I have a flight that has been moved 9.5 hours earlier to the original time. Same flight number. As it is, we can’t make it to that time since the original flight was in the evening and now it is in the morning. Is this classified as a cancellation?
I remember reading somewhere that more than 2 (or is it 4) hour change constitutes a cancellation?
Is this correct?
If it is a cancellation, I get my refund for free without paying the Ł35 pp penalty for the redemption booking.
I have a flight that has been moved 9.5 hours earlier to the original time. Same flight number. As it is, we can’t make it to that time since the original flight was in the evening and now it is in the morning. Is this classified as a cancellation?
I remember reading somewhere that more than 2 (or is it 4) hour change constitutes a cancellation?
Is this correct?
If it is a cancellation, I get my refund for free without paying the Ł35 pp penalty for the redemption booking.
See:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/32830729-post224.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/32709124-post4001.html
https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/traveltrade/bookings-policies/policies/standard-customer-guidelines#
Last edited by jerry a. laska; Jan 15, 2021 at 4:59 pm
Jan 15, 2021, 5:34 pm
#296
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,865
Hi
I have a flight that has been moved 9.5 hours earlier to the original time. Same flight number. As it is, we can’t make it to that time since the original flight was in the evening and now it is in the morning. Is this classified as a cancellation?
I remember reading somewhere that more than 2 (or is it 4) hour change constitutes a cancellation?
Is this correct?
If it is a cancellation, I get my refund for free without paying the Ł35 pp penalty for the redemption booking.
I have a flight that has been moved 9.5 hours earlier to the original time. Same flight number. As it is, we can’t make it to that time since the original flight was in the evening and now it is in the morning. Is this classified as a cancellation?
I remember reading somewhere that more than 2 (or is it 4) hour change constitutes a cancellation?
Is this correct?
If it is a cancellation, I get my refund for free without paying the Ł35 pp penalty for the redemption booking.
Jan 15, 2021, 10:50 pm
#297
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 365
Flight cancelled by BA. I paid for that flight using both a FTV (from an earlier flight cancelled by me and which I had orginally paid for in cash) and cash. As this cancellation is by BA, I'm entitled to a full refund. But is the full refund a cash refund comprising the cash I paid most recently together with the cash value of the FTV (which I paid in cash originally), or it is a refund of part cash plus part another FTV?
Jan 16, 2021, 1:09 am
#298
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 457
Flight cancelled by BA. I paid for that flight using both a FTV (from an earlier flight cancelled by me and which I had orginally paid for in cash) and cash. As this cancellation is by BA, I'm entitled to a full refund. But is the full refund a cash refund comprising the cash I paid most recently together with the cash value of the FTV (which I paid in cash originally), or it is a refund of part cash plus part another FTV?
If You paid part with voucher You will receive cash
so happy cancelation for You
Jan 16, 2021, 1:10 am
#299
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: living near Malaga
Programs: BA Gold , Mucci recipient. Coffee Drinker, Blue Sky Thinker
Posts: 2,105
Flight cancelled by BA. I paid for that flight using both a FTV (from an earlier flight cancelled by me and which I had orginally paid for in cash) and cash. As this cancellation is by BA, I'm entitled to a full refund. But is the full refund a cash refund comprising the cash I paid most recently together with the cash value of the FTV (which I paid in cash originally), or it is a refund of part cash plus part another FTV?
